Boston Beer (SAM) Reports Q1 Loss, Misses Revenue Estimates

Discussion in 'Beer News' started by Todd, Apr 23, 2022.

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  1. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,254) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
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    https://sg.news.yahoo.com/boston-beer-sam-reports-q1-141302635.html
     
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  2. ManBearPat

    ManBearPat Pooh-Bah (1,813) Dec 2, 2014 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah Society

    That one guy goan be out on the street if this keeps up, y’all
     
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  3. Cubatobaco

    Cubatobaco Pooh-Bah (2,057) Jan 27, 2013 Virginia
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    Entire market is taking a beating!
     
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  4. Fenski

    Fenski Pundit (755) Apr 24, 2008 Ohio
    Society

    The locals are dominating the market now and it's not going to go back to how it was. I shudder to say it, but I think the long-standing stalwarts like Jim and others should think about going the way of Larry Bell.
     
  5. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    They might be dominating the beer talk on the internet, but it sure doesn't look that way based on the TTB's numbers (2021 not out yet), from which this chart is adapted.
    [​IMG]
    So, the bottom 95% of the licensed brewers in the US (15k barrelage or under, what the B.A. calls "microbreweries") account for about 3% of the beer brewed in the US.
    According to the Report in the OP "... Shipment volume fell 25.1% to 1.7 million barrels in the first quarter..." - so they are on track to brew about 7 million barrels of beer (and seltzer, tea and other beverages), more than that same 95% of the brewers combined. That 1.7M bbl. in 3 months is more than any true "craft" brewer* makes a year (*outside of pre-craft, adjunct-brewer Yuengling).


    Don't quite understand your point - Jim Koch? The guy who owns ALL of the voting (Class B) stock of the Boston Beer Co.?


     
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  6. HouseofWortship

    HouseofWortship Pooh-Bah (2,629) May 3, 2016 Illinois
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    The pendulum should swing back to the craft macros soon as they can deliver decent beer for considerably less money which is going to be something important if the economy tanks and inflation continues to soar.
     
  7. Fenski

    Fenski Pundit (755) Apr 24, 2008 Ohio
    Society

    Yeah JK, I figured the numbers still favored the big guys. SA has built quite a successful empire over many years, especially concerning distro saturation. But a lot of these local guys are doing this also, now. It's still relatively early in the big scheme but I think it's only a matter of time when the younger generations look past the big guys and go with the local stuff they see in the stores and at the brewpubs they can actually visit.
     
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  8. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    “Shipment volume fell 25.1% to 1.7 million barrels in the first quarter, driven by declines in the Truly Hard Seltzer, Twisted Tea, Angry Orchard, and Dogfish Head brands, partly negated by gains in its Samuel Adams brand.”

    I have read in the past about the non-Beer stuff not being as popular (e.g., Hard Seltzer, etc.) but this is the first that I have read that Dogfish Head sales have been declining. I wonder if this is a ‘backlash’ about Dogfish Head selling out to BBC?

    Cheers!
     
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  9. FBarber

    FBarber Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,161) Mar 5, 2016 Illinois
    Super Mod Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Live by the seltzer, die by the seltzer.
     
  10. AlfromPA

    AlfromPA Crusader (439) Dec 9, 2021 Colorado

    Truly was booming until the big guys got into the seltzer game. Then they were muscled aside. The decline in Dogfish Head is interesting, though. Perhaps sales of DH have indeed been hurt by the (alleged) rise in popularity of strictly local brewers. DH is no longer "cutting edge" (remember the TV show?).
     
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  11. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Well, Dogfish Head did recently release a "cutting edge" beer called Where the Wild Hops Are:

    https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/dogfish-head-releases-where-the-wild-hops-are.664613/

    I thought about buying a six-pack but when I saw the high price I decided to not buy this beer. I bought something else, which was more reasonably priced, instead.

    Cheers!
     
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  12. HouseofWortship

    HouseofWortship Pooh-Bah (2,629) May 3, 2016 Illinois
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    It’s a lot easier to connect with a business if the owner is in the brewery vs in the board room.
     
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  13. ESHBG

    ESHBG Pooh-Bah (2,099) Jul 30, 2011 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    None of this is surprising to me:
    • Hard Seltzer was a fun new trend but then completely saturated the market. HS, like macro Lagers, is one of those beverages where they are similar enough that if you've tried a few, you've now tried most.
    • DFH is a bit "lost" now. Overpriced, way too many choices on the shelves at any given time because of all of the one-offs, then it all ages out on shelves.
    • Beer is just not the beverage it once was. Drinkers are becoming more health conscious and study after study is showing us that if you want to lose weight, don't drink beer.
    • SA is boring now and outside of a few random winners their whole lineup is mediocre and they are a fraction of their former selves in this area. And they seem to not want to listen to customers at all which alienates them further.
    Now add in everything else we are seeing with the economy and inflation and this is the result.
     
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  14. moodenba

    moodenba Pooh-Bah (1,833) Feb 2, 2015 New York
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Enlightening post. This drop in volume for Boston Beer shouldn't cripple the company. Their sales volume still at least approaches the company owned brewing capacity (primarily Allentown, Cincinnati, and Dogfish Head). The losses are probably temporary, due to contracted production at non-owned facilities. As long as they can keep their own breweries busy, they are OK. They are probably in better shape than most of the other regional and national craft brewers.
     
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  15. cjgiant

    cjgiant Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,560) Jul 13, 2013 District of Columbia
    Pooh-Bah Society

    So are you saying DFH is lost for having too many one offs and Sam is boring, presumably for the opposite? Perhaps there’s now way for this company to win.
     
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  16. LesDewitt4beer

    LesDewitt4beer Grand Pooh-Bah (4,776) Jan 25, 2021 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Not sorry for those 1st world beer company issues.
     
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  17. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Pooh-Bah (2,796) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Pooh-Bah Society

    FIFY
     
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  18. thebeeremptor

    thebeeremptor Zealot (690) Aug 12, 2018 California
    Society Trader

    I, for one, am shocked. How can you not continue to succeed when you inundate the market with ten different seltzer variety packs in a market that is increasingly inundated with ten different seltzer varieties per competitor in a market that is already feeling fatigue?

    I used to sell two full pallets a week of the White Claw Variety pack, the OG one. That was a normal week. Now, I sell like half a pallet of all the variety packs combined a week. Same goes with the Truly.

    Forgive my harsh language and rhetoric coming up here but honestly the people asking for this stuff shouldn't be allowed to operate heavy machinery, including cars at this point. And I've just about had it fielding the same six questions over and over every day for months on end.

    Even among the masses of idiotic trend-chasing idiots that I encounter on a daily basis, seltzers are on the decline. The same degens asking for Happy Dad and the newest seltzer variety pack. In this forum, that should be cause for celebration (and my own, if I'm being honest) but something that we should all keep in mind is that malt beverage, i.e. seltzer, sales are tied into beer sales, this is going to put a squeeze on some things.

    In the quarters to follow, the numbers will reflect "beer" and "seltzers" made by breweries and it shouldn't color your expectations of what it actually going on. When my company can be fucking bothered to update numbers, the last I saw was the craft (at least at my store TOTALLY ANECDOTAL DISCLAIMER) was actually up.
     
  19. ESHBG

    ESHBG Pooh-Bah (2,099) Jul 30, 2011 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Unfortunately for all of us beer is one of the worst alcohols you can drink because it has alcohol + high calories + high carbs unless it is brewed to lower all of this e.g. light beers. Is drinking beer and working out better than drinking beer and not working out or not drinking beer and not working out? Sure, but that is just a lesser of the evil scenarios.

    Moderation is great and any alcohol is technically bad but if you want the best case scenario while drinking generally you are going to want to avoid regular beer. And in the craft world this is especially true, as most decent beers are 6-7% and of course then the calories and carbs really add up.
     
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  20. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    In the Nov/Dec 2021 issue of Zymurgy magazine there was an article entitled "Brewing Light". The author (Nick Rodammer) spent his pandemic time brewing up a number of different beers using a myriad of strategies. A very interesting read.

    In the last paragraph his lead sentence:

    "While I doubt any homebrewers will suddenly decide to downside all their beers (and having done so for a year and a half I don't recommend it)."

    IMO there are certain beer styles which are well suited for being 'light'. One of these days I need to brew a Mild Ale. :beer:

    Cheers!
     
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